Understanding Our Place in Prophecy

“We worship the Lord. We simply love, adore, and praise God’s name—no matter what’s going on around us. We know He will march with us to the farthest corners of the earth and to the end of the age.”
― Dr. David Jeremiah

I don’t have to tell you that this has been about the strangest year we’ve ever had just about every way you can imagine.
We have been reminded that life is uncertain.
In fact, if you go back over these last days, not just this year, but these last two or three years, you stop to think about it for a moment.
It’s not that we’ve just had one thing cross the stage, but that many things have crossed the stage all at the same time.
We barely get over one thing and something else happens. Never have there been such stressful headlines?
I’ve had more people say to me in recent days, I’ve given up on the news.
I don’t even watch it anymore. It’s too discouraging, too depressing.
And it seems as if those who give us the news are absolutely committed.
Never to give us any good news. Even if there is good news.
Serious people are asking everywhere you go.
If these things are happening today, what will be the future for my Children and my grandchildren?
Well, there’s only one reliable source of information about the future.
Only one that has an astounding record of accuracy. That’s the Bible.
If you want to know about the future, there’s only one place you can go and find any good information.
Don’t read the futurists, read the prophets.
The Bible is filled with information to help us navigate the uncertain course that is before us.
But there are many people today who strangely enough, even in our good evangelical churches have decided Bible prophecy is irrelevant that it shouldn’t be taught.
I’ve had more than one preacher say I never touch prophecy because it has nothing to do with the day to day lives of my people.
And when they say that I am reminded that they haven’t read any prophecy because almost every passage that tells us about the return of the Lord Jesus has within the major context of that prophecy and admonition given to us so that we know what to do.
People say I don’t believe in prophecy, but they do. It wasn’t so long ago.
Was it that you could hardly turn on your television? Turn one channel to the next.
Every time you turn the channel here was some psychic person willing to tell you your future.
They even had a network called a psychic network and that they went out of business.
You would have thought they would have known one pastor I know said that he doesn’t ever preach on prophecy because he said prophecy distracts people from the present and astute colleague definitely responded.
Well, then there’s an awful lot of distractions in the Bible.
One of the most convincing evidence is that the Bible is God’s word and that is inspired is the staggering number of prophecies that have been fulfilled in the past with pin point accuracy.
For instance, take the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, born of a virgin, born in Bethlehem to be our savior.
Take that event, did you know that in the Old Testament, there are 300 prophecies concerning the first coming of Jesus Christ.
And now we have lived past that and we can look back in the annals of history, we can examine the prophetic word and we can compare it to what we know to be true and we will discover as we do that, that every single one of these 300 prophecies was fulfilled to the minute detail in ways that defy explanation.
Apart from Almighty God, there are 300 prophecies in the Bible concerning the first coming of Christ.
But there are three times that many prophecies in the Bible concerning the second coming of Christ.
If Almighty God prophesized his first coming over here and now time has passed and we can trace what happened and we say, you know everything he said, what happened, happened and now he’s prophesying another coming with the same kind of verbiage in the same prophets.
What do you think he will do? I think he will fulfill it, don’t you?
I think the things that he says will happen, will happen.
And all my friends, how many truths there are in the word of God about the days in which we are living and the time which is yet to come.
If you want to know what in the world is going on, you have to turn to the Bible for some answer.
I want to remind all of you that we are living in this unprecedented time.
Some of you are going to say, well, pastor, I would have just been happy to have been born and lived in the good old days.
If you can figure out what they are, I would have loved to have been born in that special generation, the one they call the best generation.
I wish I could have been born. Some of you were. But have you ever asked yourself this question?
Why am I on this earth at this particular time?
Did you know that Almighty God could have dropped you down along the landscape of history any place he wanted?
Well, he put you here, he put you here for now. God wants you here for now.
So don’t complain about not having lived at a different time or wish you could live in some future time.
Embrace the fact that God has given you this time and then find out everything you can about how to live this time in the Holy Spirit power that He wants to give you.
So where are we what’s happening?
Well, let me just say, first of all, we’re living in the generation of the rebirth of the nation of Israel when I was seven years old, something happened in our world that has forever changed the landscape going forward.
It almost happened off the radar screen as far as many people are concerned. It was 1948.
So you do the math and you’ll figure out how old I am.
It was 1948 and the nation of Israel was born, it all began much earlier than that.
In fact, the beginning of it takes you all the way back to the first book of the Bible and the 12th chapter of Genesis where Almighty God gave a promise to Abraham, the father of the nation of Israel and Almighty God said some specific things to Abraham.
He promised to bless him. He said, Abraham, I’m going to bless you and he certainly has.
Did you know that Abraham’s name is revered among Christians and Jews and Muslims alike.
He said, Abraham, I’m going to make you a great blessing and he has done that as well.
Did you know that the Bible is a Jewish book?
Did you know that your savior and mine is a Jewish savior?
Did you know that the law that is basically the basis of jurisprudence around the world is the law that was given to Moses on Mount Si God has made of Abraham a great blessing and then he said, I’m going to bless those Abraham that bless you and I’m going to curse those, that curse you.
It hasn’t fared well for those who have taken Israel on as an enemy almighty God has miraculously preserved them even in spite of all of their suffering.
And the history books show that those who have blessed Israel have been blessed and those that have cursed Israel have been cursed.
But the one promise that God made to Israel that for 2500 years went unfulfilled was the promise of a land almighty God said to Abraham.
I’m going to give you a land, a land of your own and you will live there as a nation in that land For 2,500 years, there was no evidence that that could happen.
Then through a series of amazing events in 1948, the nation of Israel came to be and the significance of Israel’s re emergence in her ancient homeland is critical to us because in order for all of the other end time prophecies to happen, Israel has to be at home in her own land.
And so now the beginning of the re gathering of the nation of Israel has happened.
Israel today is exhibit a in the lineup of convincing evidence that the Bible prophecies concerning the future are going to be fulfilled.
Here after all these years, is this little nation confounding everyone with their military ability and their commitment to survival.
And you know, it happened miraculously, not just over in Israel, but it happened almost on this side too back in 1948.
And the president of the United States was Harry Truman.
And he was the first to recognize Israel as a nation that this was God at work in Israel was illustrated.
When several months later, the chief rabbi of Israel came to the White House and made an appointment with President Truman.
And this Jewish rabbi said to Truman mister President God put you in your mother’s womb so that you would be the instrument to bring about the rebirth of Israel.
After 2,000 years those who were there in that meeting said they looked over and Truman was shedding tears because he comprehended the significance of that event which hardly anyone ever talked about.
But today is becoming front and center.
Did you know that the nation of Israel is mentioned more on the news than any other nation except the United States?
It’s amazing. The little nation of Israel is 119th, the size of California, not even as big as New Jersey.
And yet here it is God’s special plan.
God’s special place just as God said, it would be arising in the end time to be present so that all the prophecies that surround it could take place.
Not only do you have the rebirth of Israel as a nation?
But you have the redistribution of wealth through oil each year, billions of dollars are being paid to rogue nations in the Middle East for their oil.
From the coffers of this peace loving nation to the treasuries of Arab nations that have openly announced their desire to destroy Israel and the United States after the 1948 re founding of the nation of Israel in an ancient homeland, even Bible believing Christians often wondered what would draw the attention and the animosity of the whole world for that little nation.
I remember thinking, you know, I read the Bible and the Bible says it’s all going to end over there in Israel and it doesn’t make any sense.
It’s a little tiny nation. And then all of a sudden everybody begin to realize it’s the oil.
The Bible says, God is going to put a hook in the jaws of the nations and I believe that hook is the oil oil in the Middle East will be like a magnet drawing all of the nations to that focal point for the final war that will take place on this earth.
I remember reading that long ago that golden era when she was in office once made the comment that she was very angry with Moses.
She said, Moses, let us throughout the wilderness for 40 years and then plucked us down in the one place in the Middle East where there isn’t any oil.
Some people are saying that maybe that’s not true that perhaps oil is in Israel and the Zion Oil Company is prospecting right now using the Bible to try to find the places in the holy land where oil might be deposited.
So we have the rebirth of Israel in our lifetime.
We have the redistribution of wealth in our lifetime and then keep your eyes on Europe, the realignment of Europe as well.
30 some years ago, Don and I were invited to go to Europe to speak at a missions conference that was held in Holland.
We’d never been to Europe before.
So we spent enough time there to take the train across, across Europe and I’ll never forget it.
Every place you came to a border, the train stopped the customs people got on, they checked your passport, stamped it, they got off and you went to the next place you get to the next border, they get back on.
So we had lots of stamps in our passports.
By the time we got across Europe, you go to Europe today, you don’t have to do that.
Europe is becoming a seamless continent.
In fact, in Europe today, we are seeing the fulfillment of a prophecy that many folks don’t even know about.
Did you know that in the book of Daniel in the second and in the 9th chapter, Daniel saw the opportunity to interpret a couple of dreams.
These two dreams basically are about one thing they’re about the history of the world from Daniel’s time until Almighty God sets up his kingdom on this earth.
The first vision is of a statue. The other is of beasts.
But either way, what they’re saying is that there was Babylon and then there was me Persia and then there was Greece and then there was Rome.
But when Rome comes at the end of the story, Rome is not finished, Rome sort of fades off into oblivion.
And then all of a sudden you read this that when Almighty God sets up his kingdom, after the seven years of tribulation, that a form of the Roman Empire will be functioning on this earth.
In the vision, it talks about 10 toes or 10 leaders in Europe.
Literally what the prophecy is saying, men and women is this that what is happening in Europe today?
This reorganization of Europe 27 nations now in the European coalition, their own coins called the Euro dollar.
This reconnection of all the old nations of the Roman Empire are fulfilling the prophecies of Daniel and pretty soon they will have their own president, they already have their own constitution.
They tell us that this is now the most powerful bloc of nations in the world equaling almost the power and dominance of the United States.
You say, Pastor Jeremiah, what is the significance of Europe? Why is that important?
It’s important for this reason. The Bible says that in the end time there is going to be a ruler who comes upon this earth, he will rule the whole world.
He will be the ruler of the whole world. I thought at one time, that would be impossible.
It’s becoming more and more possible all the time.
Is it not through all of our technology, through all the things we’re able to do?
The Bible says he will abrogate power to himself and he will rule the whole world.
Now, what the scripture says is this, this world ruler will come out of the reunited European coalition.
In other words, out of the old Roman Empire revived in the last time this ruler will emerge, he will come from there.
He’s not going to come from the United States.
The Bible says that the antichrist will not be revealed until after the rapture.
So if you think you know who he is, you’ve been left behind, stop and think about it for a moment.
Here is the nation of Israel back in her land.
Here is all of this control being moved to the Middle East through the redistribution of wealth.
Here is the realignment of Europe and then of course, we have all lived every one of us here.
We are the first generation to have to deal with the rise of Islamic terrorism.
It all began to be very apparent to us on 9:11 and we have never recovered nor will we ever not long ago, someone put in my hands, a book that was written by George Saa who was an air force general under Saddam Hussein, though ethnically an Iraqi, he was not a Muslim but a Syrian Christian.
And in his book, Saddam’s Secrets, how an Iraqi general defied and survived Saddam Hussein.
Sara tells some of the story behind the Islamic revolution.
He said I am often asked about militant Islam and the threat of global terrorism.
More than once, I’ve been asked about the meaning of the Arabic words, Fatah and Jihad.
What I normally tell them is that to follow militant brand of Islam, these are the doctrines that express that Allah has commanded them to conquer the nations of the world.
Both by cultural invasion and by military domination means they move into communities and they set up strong blocks of influence.
So little by little, they’re able to gain control of influence in the community.
And Jihad means that they believe those who are not Islamic are heretics that includes all of the Jews and all of us.
I’m not condemning the Islamic people. I actually have a number of friends who are Islamic.
The vast majority of Islamic people are peace.
They do not want to participate in all of that is going on today in our world.
Someone has said that while the majority of the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims want no part of deadly violence and attempt to live in peace with their neighbors, the number of radicals who preach violence and terror is mushrooming around the world.
And experts say that 15-20% of Muslims are radical enough to strap a bomb on their bodies in order to kill Christians.
If this number is accurate, it means that there are about 300 million Muslims who are willing to die and willing to take you or me.
One other word that’s in the vocabulary is the word Madi, believe it or not.
The Islamic belief system as a part of their belief system.
The concept that their 12th imam is their messiah who is going to come, one of the names given for the Messiah is the body and they believe that the body will only come to this world as their messiah.
When there is an absolute worldwide chaos fomenting on this earth I never even heard is growing up.
It was something that was going on over there.
Fact, I just recently read that the fastest growing religion in America is the rebirth of Israel as a nation.
The redistribution of wealth through oil.
The realignment of Europe, the rise of radical Islam pastor, what are we to do?
The Bible says that all these things are happening and they’re preparing the way for an event.
Listen to me now that could happen tonight.
The Bible speaks of a moment in time and it’s called the rapture.
The rapture is an event that is yet to happen on this earth and the Bible speaks of it in first Thessalonians chapter four.
I do not want you to be ignorant brethren concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope for.
If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those that sleep in Jesus.
For this, we say to you by the word of the Lord that we who of Ivan remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means perceive those who are for the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of an archangel and the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first and we are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
And thus, we shall always be with the Lord, therefore comfort and encourage one another with these words.
Now, Paul wrote this to a church in Thessalonica for one specific reason, listen carefully.
Almost everybody who was there in the church at the time believed that Jesus was coming back.
They had been taught that and they accepted it as true. But what they didn’t understand was this.
They had Godly parents and grandparents and sisters and brothers and some of them Children who also had trust in Christ, but they had died and their bodies had been buried in the ground.
And the Thessalonians wanted to know what what happens to them.
And so Paul begins his little verse by saying, I would not have you to be ignorant brethren concerning those who have fallen asleep.
You all know that falling asleep means die. That’s what you say about a Christian who dies, he falls asleep.
Paul addresses this to the ignorant brethren. Somebody said, that’s the largest congregation in the whole world. The ignorant brethren.
I don’t know if that’s true or not, but these brethren were a bit ignorant about what was going to happen to their loved ones.
And so Paul wrote this letter and he said, let me set this all straight for you.
And he gave them a crystal clear outline first.
He said, I want you to know that one day, there’s going to be a return. One day.
The Lord Jesus is going to come out of the skies and he’s going to come into the heavens.
And the Bible says, he will come with a shout in the voice of an arch angel and the Trump of God, he’s not going to send his angels.
It won’t be the Holy Spirit. It’s not going to be John, the Baptist, the Lord himself will return.
And then Paul made this astounding statement. He said, you’re worried about those who’ve already died.
Don’t worry about them before he said the dead in Christ.
Once again, those are not the people sitting in the third row of your church guys.
I want you to know the dead in Christ are not the people that fall asleep on Sunday, the dead in Christ are the people who have died and are.
And Paul says, now, listen, the Lord is going to come back.
But before he comes after you, he’s going to get all of those who have already died and they’re going to rise up from the ground and there’s going to be a resurrection.
And then he says, after the resurrection happens, after all those who have died in Christ have been raised up and they go up to the heavens with the Lord.
The Bible says, and then those of us who are alive and remain.
In other words, we haven’t died and the Lord has come back, we’re going to be caught up together with them to be with the Lord.
And so shall we ever be with them? Listen to me, men and women.
There’s coming a day when there’s going to be a shout and the voice of an archangel and the trumpet of God and only believers will hear it.
And the Bible says, all of the graves that have been occupied by those who are Christians will be opened and their bodies will be resurrected and go up to meet the Lord.
And on their way up, all of their bodies will be reformed and remained as a resurrection body.
And as soon as that happens, all of us who are still walking around on planet Earth and I plan to be here, the Lord will.
I think he’s going to come back soon. I tell everybody, I’m not looking for the undertaker.
I’m looking for the undertaker. Amen.
Then we’re going to be caught up to be with the Lord.
And then the Bible says, together with our loved ones who died before we did, we’re going to be ushered into the presence of heaven and there we will be forever.
That’s what we have to look forward to.
I hope that’s what you have to look forward to. If you know Jesus Christ, that’s your future.
Plain and simple. One of these days, the Lord is coming back and if you know Him, you will be taken to heaven to be with Him.
We say we believe this.
But do we, if you knew Jesus was coming tomorrow night, what would your tomorrow look like?
And people say, well, you know, the Bible says, he’s coming back. I don’t know what to do.
What should I do? Pastor read the words of prophecy.
First of all, the Bible says, we’re to stay centered on Christ over in Colossians.
It says, since we have been risen with Christ, we’re to set our affection on things above, not on things below.
As we wait for Jesus to come back, we’re to set our affection upon him.
And the Bible says, we’re to stay confident in God’s word, committed to it with all of our hearts.
We’re to understand that the only thing we have that will help us in these difficult days and prepare us for the time to come.
Is the word of God. The commitment to the word of God, stay centered in Christ, stay committed to the word.
And here’s what I want to talk about for just a moment, stay compassionate toward other people.
Here’s what it says in second Thessalonians chapter three may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all just as we do to you so that he may establish your heart’s blameless and holiness before our God and father.
At the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Listen, Paul writes to the Thessalonian and he said the coming of the Lord is coming. It’s happening.
It’s going to be here soon. So what you should do is increase and abound in love toward one another.
And then he adds this little troubling phrase and toward all, what is the temptation that we have when we’re going through times like this right now, I’ll tell you what it is.
All of us have faced it.
Maybe we’re not caught up in the scandals that have been happening in our country.
Maybe we haven’t been laid off and maybe it looks like we’ve got some security going forward.
Our temptation as followers of Christ is to say, ok, I’m going to gather this all up to myself, batten down the hatches, board up the windows.
Don’t tell anybody we’re OK. Hang in there by ourselves until this thing gets over.
That’s what the majority of people are doing today.
They’re trying to get everything they can and conserve it for themselves and not worry about anybody else.
And let me tell you something.
That’s the exact opposite from what God has called us to do as his people.
This is an opportunity for us to be compassionate, an opportunity for us to reach across all kinds of lines into the lives of other people who are hurting.
Many, many people are hurting so much worse than you can imagine. Men and women. These are difficult times.
These are the times that were prophesized we would experience before the lords returned.
But here is the opportunity for us to shine like we have never shined before.
You know what grieves me when I come into a city like this city and you don’t have to be in a city very long before you start hearing a little bit of this and a little bit of that.
Well, these people aren’t getting along with these people.
You know what the time has come for us to put all that aside.
We are Christians and the body of Christ needs to come together.
Really doesn’t have anything to do with the color of our skin or ethnicity or where we came from or how we speak.
It has to do with our faith in Jesus Christ.
And the Bible tells us that in these days before Christ comes back, we need to reach out and join hands with other believers and then we need to spread our hands out wide and help people who need our help.
Let this be the finest hour for the church instead of the hour when people look at us as a bunch of stingy people who close everything around us and try to wait for the storm to pass.
You know what Almighty God has put us where we are at this particular time, as I said at the beginning, because he has called us to this time and to this place, there are many other things that we’re told to do.
We’re told to stay connected to the church.
Did you know that the Bible says for sake, not the ascending of yourselves together is the manner of some is but so much the more as you see the day approaching.
What does that mean? It means as you realize Jesus is coming back, you need to get together with God’s people more than you used to.
I lived in a generation where we watched services fall off like broken limbs.
When I was growing up, we had a prayer meeting every Wednesday night.
You don’t have to see that anywhere anymore. Not in California, we had Sunday night services.
That’s also archaic in most places.
I’m not saying we have to go back to Wednesday night church or Sunday night church.
I don’t know what your deal is here.
What I do know is the Bible says, this is not a time for us to be scattering as God’s people.
This is a time for us to be gathering as God’s people. Listen to me.
There are only two times in the New Testament where this expression gathering is used once it’s used for Christians gathering in the church and once it’s used for when we gather together with the Lord in his coming.
And I’m convinced that both are equally important. God is looking forward to the time when we gather with him.
But in the meantime, while we’re waiting for the return of Christ, we need to be gathering with one another.
You say I can worship God on the golf course.
You cannot more than you can play golf in the church building. You can’t do it.
You need to be with God’s people.
If you listen to turning point, you hear me say this every Friday night, every Friday afternoon.
Whenever you listen to turning point, I say, don’t you ever use this broadcast as an excuse for not going to your local church, men and women.
You belong in the local church.
If you’re here tonight and you’re not involved in the local church, you need to find one and there are many representatives here tonight and get involved in that church.
The Bible says that as we’re looking for the Lord’s return, we should stay calm in our spirit is not a time for anxiety and panic.
Did you know there was another time in the New Testament when the disciples were filled with anxiety, they began to hear the rumors that Jesus was going to leave them.
Jesus was all they knew. He said he was going to leave and go to a place and they didn’t know where it was.
Jesus said, how could he tell him? And they were filled with fear and filled with anxiety.
And then Jesus said these words to them. He said, let not your heart be trouble.
You believe in God believe also in me, in my father’s house are many mansions and if it weren’t, so I would have told you, listen, I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself.
Then where I am there, you may be. Also the bible says, you don’t have to be filled with anxiety.
Let your heart be calm. It’s all under control. Almighty God is still on the throne.
He’s got his plan all laid out and he’s coming down.
And the best news in that passage of scripture, my friends is this, God loves you and He wants you to be where he is.
He is doing all of this for us. Listen to the verse again. Let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God believe also in me in my Father’s house. Are many mansions if it were not.
So I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there, you may be also God is interested in you.
He wants you in heaven. And that’s why he’s doing all of this.
Many of, you know, California has been visited by fires very frequently.
2003, 1 day we were having church and I began to see people get up out of church and leave while I was preaching, I had no idea what was going on.
And someone told me that they were getting text messages that their home was in the fire zone and they need to get home.
Eight or 10 of our families lost their homes in that fire.
We were told that our campus was going to go down in the flames on a Monday morning, Almighty God somehow blew the flames south and we didn’t get burned down.
Don. And I had to evacuate our home in 2003.
We thank God that we had the opportunity to minister to a lot of people.
It’s a little village up above our church called Crest. Almost every home up there was burned down.
We set up our presence up there in a tent.
We lived up there for about six weeks providing food and clothing and help and rebuilding all that we could do to help those people.
After 2003, the fire departments in Southern California got together and realized there were some major glitches in getting people away from the danger of fire.
So they came up with an ingenious plan. It’s called reverse 9 11. And here’s how it works.
If your home is in a fire zone, if your home is in a place where fires can come, everybody knows where that is in California, you register with the reverse 911 network, you give them all your numbers, then you put them into a massive when the fire comes, they watch it from their helicopters from their ability to see where it’s going and trace the wind.
Yes, in danger. They press a button on this computer.
Can you imagine check out, get out.
It worked for the very first time in 2000 when we have the highest number of evacuation lives.
And to say there were some people who got the 9-11 warning.
Tragic was the Bible says it this way that if we do not have, yeah, when Jesus comes back for his years of tribulation, embarrassing place.
You have.
You trusted Jesus Christ as your savior, you say, well, Pastor I’m young and I have lots of plans and I got some things I want to do before this and I’ve got plenty of time.
No, you don’t. First of all, there’s never been a time when it appears as if the Lord’s coming could be at any moment like it is today.
But secondly, you have no guarantee of a tomorrow if you were to die tonight and stand before Almighty God.
And he would have said to you, why should I let you invite heaven?
What would you say if you cannot say with certainty, Lord God, I come to your heaven tonight with the assurance that I belong here because I have trust in Jesus Christ, your son as my savior.
If you don’t know that, do today, what you’re going to be thankful you’ve done when you stand before the Lord, give your heart to Jesus Christ.
You will look back upon this moment as the greatest moment in your life.
It will change you from the inside and make you a new creature.